Prayer: Oh Lord, Thou art our faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love thee. We come humbly to renew the covenant promises from Thy Word, may thou grant to us Thy blessings outpoured from Thy Blessed Holy Spirit Comforter, that we may rejoice over Thee, we may rest in Thy love, we may praise with our whole heart, this we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
The Christian's help is in the LORD (v 1-2a ) for He is Creator (v 2b ) and Faithful Protector (v 3-6 ) and Saviour (v 7-8 ). (Summary Statement)
What do we do when we are in trouble? Where do we find help?
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: will we remember the name of the LORD our God.
The psalmist affirms in his heart and confesses in his mouth in penning this psalm that his help cometh from God. When he is distressed and troubled, he will pray and look to God. He would lift up his eyes heavenward to the hills and seek help from the LORD. The hill is the symbol of stability, this imagery provides the picture that God is the most reliable helper. Why is God a reliable helper? This psalm tells us the answer so that we may like the psalmist affirm our faith in God.
He is Creator (verse 2 ), He is also our Faithful Protector (verse 3-6 ) and He is Saviour (verse 7-8 ).
Coming to prayer meeting each week is an affirmation in the heart of the seeker that he needs God and is dependent on Him to live this earthly life. Have you sent anyone off in the airport before? If you have, you will know that we are quite helpless to provide for the needs of the person who may leave for long periods of time either for work, studies or migrating to a foreign land. Where does our help come? Psalm 121 is a truly blessed traveler's psalm, to remind us that in our temporal sojourn in this earth, it is God that sustains and keeps us by His power.
Psalm 121:1 A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
Psalm 120-134 is a collection of fifteen psalms of ascent that were sung on pilgrim journeys to Jerusalem. Psalm 121 is a pilgrim's song sung as the worshippers climb the steps in ascending degrees to the temple at Jerusalem to celebrate the festivities of the Jews, this is a psalm of worship and consecration.
The lifting of the eyes is a gesture of worship as the pilgrims approach God, the traveler begins by lifting his eyes to the hills, in the back of his mind, he contemplates the dangers of the journey of life that lies before him and is led to ask, "Where does my help come from?" His reply is "My helper comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
The word "help" if you look in the Thesaurus gives the various shades of meaning - assistance, aid, support, relief, comfort, benefit, advantage, good thing.
Psalm 121:2 "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth."
The LORD indeed is our help. But how often when we evaluate how as Christians we face trial and testing, invariably we find ourselves looking for help everywhere other than God. But the psalmist in verse 2 is affirming that the origin and authorship (BDB) of his help is from God this is seen by the interpretation of the phrase "cometh from" in the original its from two prepositions "from and "with" or beside".
Where is the author and origin of your help? When we come to prayer meeting, we are in the cooperative will of God, where we determine in our hearts as the psalmist that our help is from the LORD, where we are able to receive God's direction and guidance through His word and in prayer.
Therefore in the face of uncertainty and crossroads in life, the psalmist here affirms his faith in Yahweh, His God, here is emphasized the covenantal relationship.
When Jesus purchased our redemption on the cross, it is a permanent redemption, reconciling us to God. The broken relationship due to sin has been mended permanently.
Have you broken a piece of glass before? I remember I tried to take something from the shelf one morning and a picture frame not properly secured fell off, shattering the glass all over the floor. It took some time to clean up. It is impossible to put back those pieces of broken glass, shattered into small pieces. But not with God, no matter how far we have departed from God, how much we have broken the heart of God, there is a way back with God. If we will only come with brokenness of heart, He will accept us! He is a God of the impossible. Able to mend any relationship that we may think is impossible to mend. This relationship with Jesus Christ, our God, is an eternal one. The psalmist is reminding us of this permanent redemption we have received because of what Jesus had done on the cross, sacrificing His life, shedding His blood to mend back that broken relationship between us, depraved and fallen man and God.
Therefore, the psalmist said because He is my Maker, because He is my Creator therefore, I am confident He is able to help me.
Remember in Jeremiah 18 , Jeremiah went to the potter's house and there he was caused to hear God's words. He saw the potter making a work on the Potter's wheel. The vessel that he made was marred in the hand of the potter, so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, in verse 6 "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
God is the one that pluck up a kingdom and pull it down and destroy it. If a nation whom God had pronounced His judgment turn from their evil, God will spare the nation. I am also the one that build and plant a nation, God says. If it does evil in my sight and obey not my voice, then I will relent of the good that wherewith I would benefit them.
The people of Judah, in which the message was directed said in verse 12 "There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart."
God will help us if we repent and come back to God. He is creator, He is maker, can He not make good our lives?
Dear brethren, the psalmist is reminding us our Maker, Creator is able to make right our lives, if only we will come back to Him!
Psalms 121:3-4 "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."
"Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble." (Proverbs 3:23 ) when we trust the LORD with all our hearts, His wisdom guides our footsteps.
Verse 3 begins with the negative particle "not" in the original, a prohibition not objectively based on fact but subjectively as a wish. This word "al" expresses strong emotions of the psalmist when he affirms that this God will not give him over to the whims and fancies of the enemy. His power guides the foot steps of the psalmist that he may not trip over the stumbling blocks in life's pathways.
Verse 4 the negative particle "not" is a different word "lo". It refers to objective denial of a fact. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. God does not need any periodic relief from His watch post for our well being. He who watches/keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. He shall not be slack and fall asleep in protecting us His children.
Remember how single handedly Elijah challenged the 450 Baal prophets at Mount Carmel 1 Kings 18:21 "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him."
1 Kings 18:26 "And Baal prophets took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made."
1 Kings 18:27 "And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked."
Elijah called upon the LORD and immediately 1 Kings 18:37-39 "Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God."
God never sleeps and is ever alert to deliver His saint from any trouble when He is being called upon in prayer. May we take heart that God answers prayers as He did when faced with the greatest challenge to God's name.
We may be sleepy and cannot tarry with the LORD as did the disciples in the garden of agony but the God that keeps us will not go to sleep.
What comfort it is for us to know that when we are tired out, we are at our wits end, we are totally exhausted and unable to think anymore, God is not tired, neither is He sleepy, He remains faithful and awake as our keeper. This is the word "shamar", repeated six times which means "to watch, to keep, to preserve". Hence the King James translator rightly used "keepeth" in verse 3 and verse 4 , "keeper" in verse 5 , "preserve" in verse 6 and 7 .
What comfort and relief this truth must be for the Christian!
Psalms 121:5-6 "The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."
God is our omnipresent protection. What a comforting thought, this truth gives to us. The word "shade" is the word for "shadow". Shadows are never an image of sinister darkness in the Bible. Rather, in the heat of Palestine, shadows are pre-eminently an image for protection or refuge provided by the LORD.
This picture is vivid when we recall the Exodus how after delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt by God's mighty hand, provided a cloud to shade them from the sun by day and a pillar of cloud of fire by night from the cold.
Psalms 121:7-8 "The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."
God's protection is complete all the way. "He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." (Job 5:19 )
Notice, the LORD preserves us from "all" evil. The word "all" is all encompassing and thorough. He shall preserve thy soul - for how long? Forevermore! Here is a picture the character of God's salvation. It speaks of the permanence of it. When we become a child of God, we have the seal of God on us which cannot be taken away whatever the cleverness of the devil. When we are saved, God is with us all along pathway to heaven, we are never alone.
Only Jesus has that power to preserve forever for He is God. We must sincerely acknowledge Him as our LORD. Our going out and our coming in, if we think truthfully, so many things can go wrong, yet they did not, because we have a most wonderful Saviour who keeps and protects us all the way until we are transported to heaven.
What should our response be? It must be of praise and worship and a resolve to adopt a defensive posture of watching out for sin for example in Luke 12:15 "And Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."
Jesus gave the parable of the rich man who pulled down his barn to build a bigger and Luke 12:19-20 "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"
It reminds me of this chorus if you will sing with me as close this exhortation, EHS 82 "What a Wonderful Saviour".
The LORD is Creator, He is Faithful Protector and He is Saviour.
Prayer: Our gracious loving heavenly Father, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Thou Saviour divine, hear us while we pray, take away all our guilt, that we may be wholly thine. May our love to Thee be rekindled, pure, warm and changeless, a living fire consecrated to Thee. Remove our worldly fears and distrust, grant to us a child like faith that looks up to Thee to take care of all our needs. This we pray in Jesus name.
Words: Ray Pal-mer, 1830.
Music: Oliv-et (Ma-son) Low-ell Ma-son, 1830
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day be wholly Thine!
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,
Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!
While life's dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow's tears away,
Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.
When ends life's transient dream,
When death's cold sullen stream over me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!